
96 REVEALING SHAPE AND CONTOUR
HOW MUCH TONAL VARIATION IS IDEAL?
We have said that a box with three visible sides needs to have a highlight
side, a shadow side, and a side whose tone is between those two. Nowhere
have we said how bright the highlight must be or how dark the shadow
should be. In fact, we never specify lighting ratios in this book because the
decision has to be based on the specic subject as well as personal taste.
If the subject is a simple cube with no important detail on any of its sides,
we can make the shadow black and the highlight white. However, if the
subject is the package for a product we want to sell, there ...